Getting Out and Getting Even
by wordslinger
Summary: Jellal gives Erza a hand in detention. Jerza. Complete.


_**Author's Note: For Jelulz based on the following prompt -**_

 _ **"I pretty much live in detention and you're a straight A student here on your first offense. Wanna add another and skip detention with me?"**_

* * *

Jellal stretched and reclined as best he could in the uncomfortable, and _unyielding_ , desk chair. He'd have been asleep within the moment – if sleeping were allowed in detention. Which it wasn't. The last time he'd dozed off Coach Redfox had lobbed a soccer ball at him and Jellal had nearly fallen from the chair. Being the only student in detention that day, he'd been spared the humiliation of getting caught. But still. That oaf of a coach-slash-history-teacher was Jellal's least favorite person on the planet. The hatred didn't seem to stop him from collecting detention slips, though, so he supposed it was his own fault he ended up in the man's company so often.

By the time the clock on the wall reached three-forty-five Coach Redfox still hadn't showed up and Jellal considered bouncing right out the door until someone he hadn't expected to see took the desk at the front of the row beside him. Before he could stop himself, he laughed loudly. The girl visibly bristled but she didn't turn around.

"If Redfox sent you in his place to monitor me, Erza, you could probably get away with the teacher's desk and not lower yourself to sit with the degenerates," he said with a crooked grin.

She didn't respond verbally, instead she only sat straighter in her chair and began to pull things from her backpack.

"Don't tell me the infamously perfect Erza Scarlet has committed a crime so great that she's been sent to detention? The scandal!" Jellal couldn't help but tease her. Erza's rigid nature and utter devotion to rules and regulations amused him.

"Shut up," she muttered, only turning her head toward him halfway. "It's none of your business why I'm here."

"Let me guess," he went on. "You had another student flogged for failing to return a library book on time? Did Fullbuster forget to put his empty lunch tray in the right basket again and you had a psychotic break?" He watched with growing delight as her hand tightened around her pen.

"I won't dignify any of that with a response."

"Ah, but your refusing to respond is actually a response." Erza shifted in her seat and continued to scratch away in her notebook. Jellal drummed his fingers on his desk in annoyance. It wasn't fun if she ignored him.

"Aw come on, Erza. I've known you since kindergarten and you've never so much as colored outside the lines even once. What did you do?"

Erza haughtily ran a hand through her gloriously flawless red hair and created a curtain blocking her profile from his view. As much as he enjoyed watching her fingers slide through the strands – Jellal had always had a bit of a _thing_ for Erza's hair – he wanted to know why she was in detention.

"Did you get into a fight?" He'd meant the suggestion to be a joke, but she slumped a little in her seat and he anxiously awaited whatever her reply would be.

"I –"

"Alright, kiddies," Coach Redfox strode into the classroom, arrogant as ever, and flopped into his cushy teacher's chair. "Let's not make this difficult. Fernandes, I know you know the rules. No talking, no sleeping, no enjoyment of any kind. Just shut up and do whatever assignments you have."

Erza shut her mouth again and Jellal rolled his eyes.

"I doubt I'll have any problems with you, Miss Scarlet. Easiest group ever."

Jellal glared at Coach Redfox and sighed loudly. The second hand ticked around the clock's face four times – he was counting – before there was a soft knock on the classroom door. The librarian, Miss McGarden, poked her head in the doorway.

"Coach Redfox, could I get your help for a few minutes? I've got some heavy lifting, if you don't mind." The grin on the coach's face as he strode from the room told Jellal all he needed to know, and he wondered what a nice lady like Miss McGarden was doing romancing a brute like Redfox. Before exiting the classroom Coach Redfox planted his hands on the surface of Jellal's desk.

"No shenanigans. None. You'll be in detention wasting my time for the rest of the school year if I come back and find trouble. We clear?"

"Crystal." Jellal smirked in the way he knew Coach Redfox hated.

"I'm watching you, Fernandes."

Jellal waited until he'd cleared the room before mumbling, "Yeah, all the way from the library storeroom, you'll be watching."

Suddenly, Erza turned around in her desk and glared at him. "What did _you_ do? What do you _always_ do?"

"Oh, you know, the usual: fighting, unpreparedness, a general lack of respect for authority. It's kind of my thing." He shrugged and grinned at her again. "You still haven't told me why _you're_ here."

Erza sighed and her face fell. For a split-second Jellal felt guilty for asking. "I slapped Simon. A teacher saw, and here I am."

He blinked in surprise. "Wow. What the hell did you do that for? You guys are like –"

"We're not anything now." Erza turned back around but didn't return to her writing. Her hand stayed poised over the paper but she was completely still.

Jellal leaned back in his chair again. Unlike Erza, he never sat in the front row. He liked to have the wall behind him to rest against, especially since the desks were so uncomfortable already. He laced his hands together behind his head and contemplated the idea of her slapping Simon in the face – at least he assumed it had been his face. That's usually where girls slapped _him_.

She was obviously upset by the situation and he didn't want to piss her off further by asking more questions but he was curious. Did this mean they'd broken up? The selfish part of him was glowing at that prospect. Jellal had never liked Simon and thought the other boy to be boorish and far too self-important to appreciate a girl like Erza. Of course, too much reflection would lead to admitting at least part of his dislike of Simon stemmed from his own latent feelings for her, and that wasn't a hill he was willing to die on. Erza was above him in every way and he was perfectly content to keep that dead end locked away forever.

"Did he deserve it?"

"Yes," she replied immediately.

"Well, good. Simon's an ass anyway."

"Thanks," she said quietly.

Jellal watched the tip of her pen tap against the paper and leaned forward impulsively. "Let's get out of here. I'm bored and Redfox is probably too busy with his tongue down the librarian's throat to come back before detention is over anyway."

"What?" Erza whirled around, horrified. "We can't just _leave!_ "

"Sure we can." Jellal shrugged. "We can just say he never showed up. What's his excuse going to be? Sorry I was making out with Miss McGarden in the library and didn't see them leave?"

"But… won't we be punished if we're caught?"

"Well, probably _me_. I'm always here anyway, though. Isn't this your first offense?"

"Yeah, but…"

"It'll be fine. Everyone will just think I lied to you about the rules." Jellal stood and grabbed his backpack. "Come on, we'll go get something to eat."

Erza stared up at him and blinked. "I don't want you to be punished because of something we both did!"

"It's not a big deal to me." He leaned against the desk next to hers. "Listen, you said Simon deserved to be slapped, right? And I don't see him in detention for whatever he did to make you do that. So this'll make things even."

She scowled. "It's not _even_ if _you_ get in trouble for –"

"You're over thinking this, Erza." He held out his hand. "Do you want to waste your time here or do you want to come with me?"

"Well…" Erza hesitated only for a moment before setting her jaw and shoving her belongings back into her bag. She took his hand and followed him out of the classroom.

* * *

The next day everyone in school was talking about Erza's new bad-boy boyfriend. She'd been seen sharing a plate of cake with him at the restaurant frequented by students after school. Rumor had it she'd been lured away from detention by frequent troublemaker, Jellal Fernandes. However, Lucy Heartfilia – a close friend of Erza's – had been overheard saying that despite being openly rebellious, at the very least, Jellal wasn't the type to cheat.

When asked, neither Erza or Jellal had much to say on the subject. From them came no denials, corrections or refutations. Their stubborn refusal to comment only fueled the gossip but after a few weeks the flutter died down and everyone just assumed they were, in fact, dating.

Coach Redfox decided to let the infraction slide. He _didn't_ have a valid excuse for why the two students weren't caught walking out of detention. He figured it was worth it, though. He always did have a thing for librarians.


End file.
